Stable Motherboards

[Profound38]

Well, I'm very close to getting my system ready for FFXI. I need to look for a good motherboard now. Could u guys recommend a good performance motherboard that's very stable? Stability is more important to me than performance. How stable are MSI and Abit boards?

[fastcart]

You should read reviews. Are you going amd or intel? I just bought an abit 865PE board (IS7-E to be exact). I currently own a separate Abit board and it's great. Abit always get top honors for stability and performance. Asus is comparable, but more expensive. MSI is below abit and Asus.

[MalkaiyaOneZero]

According to if you are going Intel or not with the CPU, but here are my stats:

Intel P4 2.4 ghz
Asus P4G8X Deluxe motherboard NICE

Asus is nice, very nice. I kinda got my board on a deal, but another good Intel Asus is the P4PE it is also very nice.

Asus is dependable, high quality, great performance. Anyone who has gotten one of their various boards will normally swear by them. I will recommend them over anyother board personally.

[MalkaiyaOneZero]

According to pricewatch (http://www.pricewatch.com) you can get a P4PE for around $90 and the P4G8X for around $140. Again, I highly recommend the P4G8X, its what I have, and I have no problems.

[Profound38]

Thx for the tips guys. I'm getting a AMD 2500+ Barton. Any specific board u guys recommend for that? Thx again

[fastcart]

Blah! AMD. Oh well. I can only suggest an nforce 2 board.

[MalkaiyaOneZero]

any particular reason you want to go AMD? If you havent gotten the processor yet I would recommend going Intel CPU with the Asus board.

If you are truly set on AMD then somebody else is gonna have to help you, I dont know squat about them, except that I rather have a P4.

[JncoDragon]

I would recommend an AMD over an Intel any day. I have used both processors (I am actually on my P4 machine right now) and will stick by AMD. They seem to give your more performance for the price. I would recommend either an Epox 8RDA+($83), Leadtek K7NCR18D($78) or an Abit KD7($93). I have worked with all three boards, and they are both excellent boards. I actually ordered the Abit KD7 for myself. I built Kenshin's machine using the Leadtek board, and I am building my friend's machine using the Epox board. Isuppose it all depends on how much you want to spend.

~JncoDragon :eek:

[Aimes]

Thx for the tips guys. I'm getting a AMD 2500+ Barton. Any specific board u guys recommend for that? Thx again

Im getting a AMD 2500+ Barton processor as well. Im going with the Asus A7N8X Deluxe.

[syrupbob8]

Epoz, Definitly the way to go. I have a epox PEAD and my friend has a Epox PEA+, his is a little more expensive cause its equipped for some sort of new hard drive type. mine was only $65 (at www.newegg.com ), supports celeron and pentium 4 processors, at 400 and 533 fsb. ive never had a crash and neither has he. right now im running a celeron 1.7 (borrowed it from friend til i get enough for P4 2.4ghz.) its overclocked to 2.12 ghz and still running 38-40 degrees, no problems.

[MalkaiyaOneZero]

noone else likes Asus:(, that is sad. They are freaking amazing!


(edited to change "sa" to "sad")

[Atma]

If you're going with an AMD 2800+ or lower, then AMD is the way to go. If you're getting an Intel processor in that range, you're basically wasting 200 dollars.

If, however, you would be going with a 3000+ or higher, then Intel is the only way to go. AMD's current core is lagging the high performance ratings, and Intel is the way to go on the bleeding edge. Just like buying an Intel processor in the range that would correspond to the AMD 2800+ or lower is wasting money, buying an AMD 3000 or 3200 (or higher) is a waste of money.

As for Asus, they make good motherboards no doubt, but generally speaking you'll pay 110-120% of the price when compared to a similar product from any of the other top-shelf board manufacturers.

[Zurar]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Gigabyte boards yet. Guess i'll have to talk em up myself. Well, i built comps for a friends company since i was 13 until i was 18 and he used about 4 different boards during thos years. Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI. Abits were great but a bit more expensive and hard to get from his vendors, Asus was good but very expensive compared to the others, and when the nForce board came out it had some unacceptable issues with printers and drivers, and just plain crashing (think we got a bad batch...5 of 6 of those were bad) Gigabytes we had used the entire time and all of their boards worked great...both budget and high-end. Infact, the only time we saw a Gigabyte board come back was usually when someone's comp got fried by lightning. MSI made some decent boards too. Infact i liked their nForce boards the best...though we did have a one or 2 go bad out of like 100 or so that we had used. In short, i've had my best luck with the Gigabytes, as i've probably built close to 1000 machines with their boards and had very few if any come back for defects.

A side note for if you're into overclocking too...Gigabyte boards score the highest on overclocking than any other boards and are considered the easiest to overclock. Anyway, hope that helps.

[Pai Pai Master]

is nVidia's Nforce 2 board any good? i have no idea what its like.

[Atma]

Nforce2 isn't really a motherboard, it's a chipset. And yes, boards developed around the Nforce2 platform are quite good.

[Pai Pai Master]

ok thanks. I'm not an extremely computer-savvy person, so sorry if i sounded like a moron. :sweat:

[Crow]

Anyone know if Asrock or Biostar makes a stable motherboard?

[Zurar]

Haven't heard of Asrock...but i did have one Biostar board at one time...It did perform rather well at that time...but it's hard to tell from just 1 board....not to mention that was an old socket 7 board.